Spring always makes me want to update my decor! I like to keep my seasonal decor simple, but I also don’t like to spend a ton of money on it! Today, I’m sharing ways to decorate for spring on a budget!
I like to use what I may have on hand for decor. Sometimes we have things sitting around because we may be able to use them. I had two blue ball mason jars in a kitchen cabinet for quite awhile. They were my grandma’s and I wanted to use them to make soap dispensers for our kitchen and upstairs bathroom. I still have plans to make them, but just haven’t yet!
Anyway, I still had some flowers from the yarn wrapped spring wreath that I made a couple years ago. I cut a few of the stems off and arranged them in the jars. I decided that they needed more.
Speaking of the yarn wrapped wreath I made! I still have it on our door for Spring. I added a cute welcome sign to it for this year. I think it was in a cupcake mail package last year!
Another favorite way to decorate on a budget is to check out your local Dollar Tree. I found these adorable wooden signs at mine. They always have so many cute decor items. It’s always so funny when I go to Dollar Tree for cupcake mail shopping. My bff’s husband is a manager at their store so sometimes things that I get for her are in the package that she gets for me! Haha!
Sometimes I do feel like I need to splurge on my decor though! I was looking for a cute Easter garland to add to my fireplace mantel. I found an adorable one with black and white buffalo plaid bunnies on Etsy! How cute is my fireplace mantel? We still have a few things we need to do to make it look done though.
We have a bulldog statue on our front porch. I always put some kind of holiday headband on him. Right now he has a leprechaun hat. For Easter I will put bunny ears on him.
I also got a buffalo plaid rug to go under our doormat!
I think our spring decor looks so good this year! I love being able to change it out every season! What do you do to decorate your house for different seasons?
With St. Patrick’s Day today I wanted to share a recipe that I found several years ago from the Duggar family. It is for Irish Soda Bread and you don’t need a lot of ingredients for it. In fact, you probably already have them in your pantry right now!
It is often made during Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations, but Irish Soda Bread was first created in the late 1830s, when baking soda was introduced to the U.K.
At this time Ireland was very poor and lacked access to ingredients to make most of their foods. The ingredients in this bread were usually what they already had in their homes and it was quick.
To make your own Irish Soda Bread you need 1 cup white flour 3/4 cup wheat meal (I don’t use this and it turns out good) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 egg 3/4 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk you can add 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar or lemon juice to your milk. Let it set for ten minutes to thicken)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix your dry ingredients with the egg.
Then add the buttermilk.
Mix with a spoon and in a bowl, sprinkle flour on the tops and sides of bread dough.
Sprinkle bottom of a pan. Roll the dough from the bowl into the pan.
Using your knuckles gently push the dough down. Using a serrated knife score an X half an inch deep into the top of the dough. Let rise for 20 minutes.
Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit in pan for 5-10 minutes. Then remove to a cooling rack. Serve at room temperature, sliced or toasted.
I add a little bit of extra seasoning when I make Irish Soda Bread. I usually add Mrs. Dash seasonings since that is mainly what I have on hand. I have also added Paula Deen House seasoning which is a mixture of onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Adding a little bit of taco season was good too. Make sure you only use a half a tablespoon though if you add taco seasoning. It was a little spicier. That could be because I make my own seasoning though! Haha!
Do you have any quick and easy bread recipes?
Posted inbaking, Recipes|Comments Off on Irish Soda Bread- A St. Patrick’s Day recipe
New beginnings has been my phrase of 2020. Over he past month I have taken some time to reflect on what I wanted for the year and where I want to go in my blog.
Mr. RCGG and I love photography. We have been working so hard over the past several months to start our own photography business. We have officially launched Nathan Joel Photography. We have been doing quite well so far with some mini sessions. Mr. RCGG is the photographer and I go along on our sessions to pose clients. I also have found that I really like editing the photos. It is fascinating to me to see how a picture that is so dark when it was taken can transform into a beautiful work of art!
Our niece designed our logo for us and we love it so much. She is such a talented graphic designer!
I have also been working on my book! I still don’t have any idea where it is going but it is coming along great! It is still very much a Hallmark movie, but at least it isn’t a Christmas one! Haha!
We are looking forward to so much more this year! Mr. RCGG has been submitting his resume for management positions with his job. He has not gotten anything yet, but he has interviewed a few times and is starting to get the hang of his company’s interview process.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on New beginnings updates
A couple of years ago I did a post Ollie Said Peachy Said. It was based on a post from my blog friend Pamela, from Hodge Podge Moments. She did a He Said She Said post where she asked her husband questions. He answered and the she answered the questions as well. She also did a version for her dogs. At this time I took the questions she made up for the dogs and applied them to Ollie and Peachy. I decided to update this with Chester and Peachy!
Do you have a nickname? Chester said: My name was Chester from my previous owner. Mommy gave me the full title of Lord Chetsterton Cheese of the Savannah Highlands right after Daddy brought me home. They also call me Pal, Buddy, Little Man, Little Dude, Big Boy, Chester-a-sauras, Baby Boy, and Chesterton.
Peachy said: My name is Queen Peaches Nicole of the Savannah Highlands. I was Princess Peach, but after my sister passed I became Queen. I honestly have no idea why in the world Mommy gave me the middle name of Nicole, but I was doing something one day that was more than likely mischievous. It just came out and it stuck so now Mommy calls me me Peachy Cat, Baby Girl, Baby Peach, Miss Peach, Peacher. I only get called Peaches Nicole when I’m causing trouble. Daddy calls me Peachy, Peach-a-roo, Peach Pie, anything to do with Peach food actually (this is usually when he’s hungry!) Little Lion, Baby Peach, Peach-a-sauras-rex
What is your favorite time of day?
Chester said: Breakfast, Dinner, walks, treat time, and when Daddy comes home from work.
Peachy said: Nap time in my condo, bedtime, and when Daddy comes home from work.
What’s your favorite treat? Chester said: I’m on a low calorie diet right now so I only get a couple of treats a day. I really like Pioneer Woman Beef Brisket treats and my Charlee Bear crunchy treats! I also really like my vitamin, but I don’t know that it is a vitamin! I also really like cheese and chicken!
Peachy said: I love my blue food, treats, and Tuna Fridays.
What is your favorite toy?
Chester said: I love my squirrel. It was the first toy that Daddy bought for me when we stopped at PetSmart on our way home from the shelter. I sleep with it every night! I also really like my turtle that I just got in our Chewy order.
Peachy said: I love anything with ribbons and feathers. I love this bird thing that Chseter got for me. It has lots of feathers!
What is your favorite thing to do during the day?
Chester said: I love hanging out with Mommy during the day! I curl up at her feet on the couch and we watch Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. We have also watched a few things on Disney +.
Peachy said: I nap in the condos by the windows and watch for my friends, Froyo and Vincent! They are neighbors cats! At night I like to watch the possums that come up onto our back patio. We have a bowl of food out there that was orginally for the outside neighboorhood cats, but the possums like to come up and eat too.
Peachy is eleven years old and such a good girl! She decided that we needed her when she was about six months old. Her personality has changed so much since Ollie passed. She was our crazy, always running around. Now she loves taking cat naps in her condos and on her bed that was originally her brother’s bed but she took it over.
Chester is ten years old. We adopted him on November 9, 2019. His previous owner was older and couldn’t take care of him anymore. Mr. RCGG fell in love with him the minute he saw him and brought him home a few days later. He has become Mommy’s boy! He loves curling up with me on the couch and giving kisses!
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Chester Said Peachy Said
Every now and then I like to keep my posts a little lighter instead of constantly posting recipes and crafts! I like to have fun just like everyone else. I wanted to share things you don’t know about me. Let’s see how many of these you knew and how many are new to you!
I didn’t know until high school that grilled cheese was actually something you could have for lunch and dinner. My grandma always made it for me for breakfast and I thought it was a breakfast food until I was 17!
When I was two or three I had an immature esophagus. My mom said that my breathing sounded like an idling tractor trailer when I slept. Around this time I figured out how to open the fridge on my own and found out that I could reach the pickles. I would take a pickle and a drink from the jar. Not long after i started doing this my breathing cleared up and I haven’t had any breathing problems since. I may still drink pickle juice! Haha!
I like British tv shows! It is no secret that my favorite show is Downton Abbey. I have recently found a few others that I like. Right now I’m watching Reign on Netflix.
Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey was filmed
I love using composition notebooks. I use them for so many different things! I use them for writing recipes, journaling, random ideas, etc. I even have some that I haven’t used yet!
Did you learn something about me today? What is something about you that people may not know? I’d love to hear about it! Tell me on my facebook page!
Italian tuna casserole was one of those dishes that just came to me one night! I was looking for a way to make tuna casserole taste a little different instead of just tuna and noodles baked together. You can make this with chicken as well if you don’t like tuna.
Having a recipe that is quick and easy is pretty much how we live in our house! Mr. RCGG doesn’t get home from work at the same time every day so knowing that dinner won’t take long after he gets home makes it so much easier for both of us.
pasta cooked as box directions 2 jars Alfredo sauce 1 can tuna or chicken Italian seasoning 4 tablespoons butter melted
I cooked the pasta as directed on the box. You know boil the water and then add the pasta to to the boiling water. While the pasta was cooking I poured the alfredo sauce into a medium bowl and added the Italian seasoning to taste mixing it well. Next drain your pasta and return to the pot. Add the butter and let it melt into the pasta. The next thing I did was pour the sauce into the pasta. Add the tuna or chicken and mix it together well. I spread it into a casserole dish and baked at 400 for 20 minutes. Top it with shredded cheese and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
2019 was quite a year! We had some drama like every other family I’m sure. Ours may not have been the same as yours, but we got through it! This is one of the reasons that I decided on New Beginnings as my phrase for 2020! During the first week of a new year I always see quotes about starting the new year with a clean slate. You have 365 days, or 366 in the case of leap year, to write your story. Just because you had some unexpected things happen doesn’t mean that your life is over!
I have not been posting as much crafts as I would like! In 2020, I’m bringing back Operation Be More Crafty! This is something I tried several years ago. I made a new craft every month of the year. Well, at least I tried. I think I made it to June! Haha! I’m running it a little different this time though. Instead of a craft every month I’m going to do one every other month. This way I will have more time to do them instead of rushing myself and not feel like I didn’t do my best!
I’d also like to invite you as my friends and readers to participate in Operation Be More Crafty! In January, March, May, July, September, and November I will post on the Random Crafty Georgia Girl Facebook page that it is time for Operation Be More Crafty. Each month will have a theme for the craft and I will announce that on the Facebook page as well!
Also in 2020. I am bringing back the RCGG Community . This is a facebook group where I will share behind the scenes of the RCGG life, crafts, recipes, and life tips. Click the link to join! You can also share crafts and recipes that you would like me to try!
It’s hard to believe that we are coming up on a new decade! It was a great year, but some things I would just like to forget! 2019 had its bad times, but there were more good than bad!
Here are some of the great things that happened in 2019:
We did the Jekyll Island Turtle Crawl mile fun run
We went to Atlanta for Easter
Celebrated my birthday and our anniversary in St. Augustine FL
Our niece came to visit during Mr. RCGG’s vacation
We went to a Savannah Bananas baseball game
We visited Purrvana Cat Cafe
We went to Atlanta for Mr. RCGG’s brother’s wedding and did his wedding photos
We went to our first Shrimp and Grits Festival on Jekyll Island
We went to see the Downton Abbey movie
We adopted the cutest dog ever
We celebrated Mr. RCGG’s birthday with a visit from his parents
We went to a Cole Swindell concert on St. Simon’s Island
We started painting my office
I decided that I’m making my dream of being an author a reality (Renewed Love coming sometime in 2020)
So I haven’t officially introduced Chester on the blog! He is a ten year old dachshund and we love him so much! He is currently sleeping on the couch with his head buried under the blanket I have around my feet. His favorite times of the day are breakfast and dinner! He loves food so much that he gets so excited and dances while I’m getting his food ready for him! He is such a happy boy and our lives have definitely changed since we adopted him!
Peachy is getting along with her new brother so well! He ties to lick her nose and she jumps back and goes the other way. Sometimes Chester is laying in the doorway of our bedroom and Peachy will slide by him to get in our room. Other times she jumps over him. When she does that he has this look like what was that! Haha! They are so good together and seem to act like they have been together their whole lives!
I hope y’all have a great Christmas! I’m taking the rest of the week and next week of for the holidays! I’ll be back next year with a 2020 goals post!
Posted inHappy Holidays|Comments Off on 2019 Year in Review
Ready or not! Christmas is eleven days away! It is hard to believe that it is almost three weeks away! As a child it seems like it takes FOREVER for Christmas to come, but as an adult the whole year is gone in a flash!
The holiday season is filled with family traditions! Each family has their own special things they do every year. These traditions can be food related, an activity, or just being together.
Some of my favorite traditions involve a little bit of all of these things! There’s food, activities, and family involved. Some of them were from when I was younger and some are newer. That’s what makes things fun!
After Christmas Eve service at church my family would go over to my grandparents house to carol them! This was not your nice pretty O Holy Night Christmas Caroling though! We would “SNEAK” up on them! I say sneak with quotations because we were NOT QUIET AT ALL! We would be laughing and shushing each other before we started singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as loud and obnoxious as we could complete with a chorus line! Believe me! It was horrible and my grandma always said she hated it but we know it was one of her favorite things!
On Christmas morning the first thing we opened was our stockings and then we had a breakfast of sausage balls and hot chocolate. I wasn’t allowed to come out of my room on Christmas morning until both of my parents were ready. Christmas morning at our house started at around 6 AM usually, but it wasn’t because of me! My dad was more excited about Christmas morning than I ever was! Haha! He would sometimes wake me up!
What are your favorite Christmas traditions?
Posted inHappy Holidays|Comments Off on Christmas Is Coming- My Favorite Traditions
I recently read Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. It is a personal development book so if you aren’t into that genre then this is not a book you would enjoy. If you don’t like feeling like you are being preached at then this is not the book for you. Rachel does talk about God and growing up with a minister father. If you like books that make you think differently about how you are living your life then this is a book for you. If you like books that make you think about what you are doing with your life then this is the book for you! If you have a dream that you have been wanting to make into a reality then this is a book for you!
One of the biggest things I got out of Girl Wash Your Face was to make your dream happen! I have had so many dreams over the years but one that has always stuck out no matter where I have been in my life is to write a book. I love writing. I wouldn’t be writing my blog if I hated it would I? I have always wanted everything I write to be perfect. It took me a long time to just write a simple essay in English class in high school!
So after reading Girl Wash Your Face, I decided that I’m making one of my dreams come true. I’m writing a book! I have said I wanted to write for so long and I thought that blogging would be a great way to actually make this dream. I love writing my blog, but there was still that part of me that wanted to be published. I want to see my name on the front of a book! I want people to read what I write. It may just be my husband, mom, and BFF but it may still be read by someone that doesn’t know me!
I learned from this book that just because you have a dream doesn’t mean that you have to put it aside because you have a life to live. You need to make YOUR dreams come true! I found a quote online by Rachel Hollis that says “The life I have is because I keep fighting for the life I want.” Fight for what you want instead of just saying oh someday I will get to that or someday I will get to this! You have the life you want already! You just aren’t done fighting for it!
This book was a great reminder that I wanted to write my own novel! I needed that push to actually start doing it! I needed to write down my goal in detail and keep focusing on it! In October I started writing Renewed Love. It is still in progress and I want to have it done by January, but I will take March as well! Haha!
I’m grateful that I read Girl Wash Your Face. It has helped me make a few adjustments with my daily routine. I’m still working on getting them into habit right now, but I know that by the end of the year, I will have my routine back on track and ready to go for the new year!
I will share updates on my writing process as I go a long! This is just the beginning of this new adventure! After writing is a whole other adventure! =)
Posted inbook review, Random|Comments Off on Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis- Book Review
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
